However, quitting proved to be a challenge. “At first I wasn’t going to [smoke],” Minho said in an interview on November 30. His character in the film is a teenage runaway who often drinks and smokes. “I told the director about my decision and he removed all the smoking scenes, but when I looked at the revised script, I could feel the absence. Smoking is a part of his character, so after thinking it over, I decided that I would take on the challenge.”

“Every time I smoked, I thought, ‘This isn’t me, but Jin Il [his character name],'” he continued. “I felt that I was getting closer to the character. But I also began to understand why people smoked right after eating, right after drinking, right after finishing a shoot. After we finished filming the movie, I would pinch myself to keep the urge away. At one point I felt like giving up, but I thought to myself, ‘Was I such a weak person as this?’ and managed to quit successfully.”

Minho now has a word of caution for young people who might be pressured into smoking. “When I didn’t smoke, lots of people who did smoke would say stuff to me about it, but we shouldn’t say things carelessly. I want to tell people they should try to cut back and avoid temptation.”